One True Queen (School for Good and Evil Book 2)

Chapter 5

"Arthur's blood? What do you mean the Snake has Arthur's blood!" Bogden blurted.

"Shh! They'll hear us!" Hester snapped. "Agatha and I were having a private conversation—"

"Your voice is so screechy there's nothing private about it."

"You moldy little toadstool—"

"Is this really the time to be bickering?" Agatha hissed between them.

They were chained by the hands, one behind the other, with Hort, Willam, Dot, and Anadil fixed to the same chain in lockstep ahead of them. Four teenage pirates in black leather, wielding curved swords, rode on horseback, two ahead, two behind, marshaling the prisoners through Jaunt Jolie, paved with yellow and pink brick, hot under their feet from the broiling summer sun. Agatha could see townspeople peeping from houses, many with black eyes or gashed cheeks.

"This is an Ever kingdom. Why aren't they helping us?" Hester whispered. "Aren't Evers supposed to rescue Good from the clutches of Evil?"

"You're not Good," Agatha grumbled, dripping sweat. "Plus, they're probably relieved it's not them."

"But they're taking us to the Snake," Hester said. "That's what matters."

The original plan had been to fight the pirates and rescue Beatrix's quest team, wherever they were. Given reports that the pirates had taken over Jaunt Jolie's ports, Agatha had expected them to attack the moment the Igraine docked—and they did in startling numbers, surfacing from the water in scaly black cloaks and silver-tipped black boots, scrambling up the boat like lizards. From storybooks, Agatha had expected the pirates to be gnarly old men, with curly beards and stinking of rum, not a band of wild young alley cats. But after two days of sailing from Avalon back into balmy waters, two days that they filled with strategy meetings and spell practice, Agatha's crew had been prepared for anything. Hester's demon flung young rogues overboard; Anadil's rats sank teeth into necks; Dot rained steaming hot chocolate on their heads; Hort's man-wolf pitched boys to the horizon while Willam and Bogden beat them off rails with the only weapons they had left. . .

Except Agatha had been so focused on her crew that she hadn't seen the cretin coming up behind her: a young pirate with bloodred tattoos around his eyes who shoved a knife against her throat. He recognized her hideous little face, he'd said, pulling a wet wad of parchment from his pocket—

It was a wanted poster.

With Agatha's face on it.

"Snake said you lot'd be comin' our way," the boy cooed, smelling like rancid meat. "Won't pay us if we don't bring ye to him alive, though. Wants to kill ye all 'imself. Much as I'd like to cut yer neck and claim the bounty inna name of Thiago of Netherwood. Git my name in a fairy tale the ol'- fashion way. By earnin' it." He scowled murderously at the group. "Yellow- bellied cream puffs. Think 'cause you went to that hoity-toity school yer better than the lot of us? Pissin' Evers and Nevers, questin' for glory! We'll see what yer books 'n teachers are worth when yer squealin' like pigs—"

Hester's demon launched for him. So did Hort's man-wolf and the rest of the crew—

Agatha ordered them to stand down. Not because she was scared; she was quite sure she could take out this Thiago twerp with a stun spell and a knee to his groin. But after what happened in Avalon, this was their one chance to meet the Snake. They had to find out who this villain was.

But now squired in chains with her crew, Agatha could feel her nerves shredding as they neared the town square. If Tedros could see her right now, he'd be on the next ship out of Camelot to rescue her. It's why she hadn't written him, letting her new courier crow idle about the ship instead. She'd come on this quest to ease his problems, not add to them.